Base44 and Lovable sell the same promise: describe an app, get a working one with a database, login and hosting. Wix bought Base44 in 2025; Lovable is the independent name most people already know. On features, they've converged so far that a feature table barely separates them.
What separates them is the part people skip: how the billing behaves when the AI burns credits on its own mistakes, and what "you own your code" means when you try to leave.
Every prompt-to-app tool eventually hits an error loop. The question is whether the plan you're on lets you buy a little more, or forces you into a bigger tier for a year.
The pricing, plainly
From both pricing pages, October 16, 2026. Base44 shows prices billed annually; monthly billing costs about 20% more.
| Base44 | Lovable | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | Starter — $16/mo yearly, 100 message credits | Pro — $25/mo, 100 credits + 5 daily build credits |
| Next tier | Builder — $40/mo yearly, 250 message credits | Business — $50/mo |
| GitHub sync | Builder and up | Not stated on the pricing page |
| Custom domain | Starter and up | Pro and up |
| Unused credits | Don't carry over (except one cycle when upgrading) | Roll over; monthly-plan credits expire two months after issue |
| Small top-ups | Not available, per reviewers | Available on demand |
Base44 looks cheaper on the sticker, and on yearly billing it is. Lovable is cheaper to recover from a bad week: its credits roll over and you can top up, while on Base44 the usual fix for running out is a bigger plan.
The billing rules that cause the complaints
Base44's own billing documentation is unusually blunt, and worth reading before you click upgrade:
- Yearly fees are non-cancelable and non-refundable, with exceptions decided case by case. You can't switch a yearly plan to monthly yourself, and you can't pause.
- Card only. No PayPal and no virtual cards.
- A chargeback suspends the workspace immediately and switches off custom domains.
- Cancelling drops you to Free with a five-app cap; your apps stay live.
Those rules line up with the Trustpilot record: 2.8 out of 5 from 914 reviews, most of them from the last twelve months. The recurring complaints are the AI looping on errors and burning credits that aren't restored, upgrades that charged a full year at once, no small top-ups, and "native" mobile apps that turn out to be a web view (Base44's docs confirm the web-view approach). Lovable's Trustpilot score sits around 4.2 on roughly two thousand reviews.
"You own your code" — what that means in practice
Base44's FAQ says you own everything and "nothing is locked to the platform," and two-way GitHub sync does export the source. Independent write-ups add the part that matters: the exported code still calls Base44's SDK for the hosted database, login and storage. You own the files; the app still needs Base44's backend to run, and leaving means rebuilding those services.
Lovable states plainly that you own your code. Its generated apps typically sit on Supabase, which you can run under your own account. That's the more portable starting point if leaving is ever on your mind.
The verdict
Start with Lovable if you're new to prompt-to-app tools. Rolling credits and on-demand top-ups forgive the error loops every beginner hits, and the backend is easier to take with you.
Consider Base44 if you already know your monthly usage and you're comfortable inside the Wix world. On yearly billing its sticker prices are lower and it bundles a lot. Pay monthly first, upgrade to yearly only once you're sure, and never click upgrade without reading the billing period.
Use neither if you already work with a coding agent. A builder that owns your backend is a step backwards from a repo you control.
The one-line version
Base44 is cheaper on yearly billing but its credits don't roll over, its yearly plans can't be cancelled, and its exports still lean on its backend; Lovable costs a bit more and forgives mistakes better, so most beginners should start there.
Sources
Checked on October 16, 2026. I'm an affiliate for both Base44 and Lovable; nothing above changes based on that:
- Base44 — product site (my affiliate link)
- Base44 — pricing (Starter $16, Builder $40, Pro $80, Elite $160 billed annually; credits per plan; GitHub on Builder and up; the ownership FAQ)
- Base44 docs — billing and plans (non-refundable yearly fees, card-only payments, chargeback suspension, downgrade to Free)
- Trustpilot — Base44 (2.8 from 914 reviews; credit-loop and billing complaints)
- Future Stack Reviews — Base44 (exported code still calls the Base44 SDK)
- Lovable — product site (my affiliate link)
- Lovable — pricing (Pro $25 with 100 credits plus daily credits, Business $50, rollover rules, top-ups, code ownership)
- CTech — Wix acquires Base44
One honest gap: I didn't confirm whether Lovable's lower tiers include GitHub sync, because its pricing page doesn't say. Check inside the app before you rely on it.